Frozen Summer
by Darkrystal Sky
Summary: Zach and Ivy love to solve mysteries. That's why when they hear about a lake in Burgess, Pennsylvania, that's always been frozen since 1712, they cannot be uninterested. They believe in science and reason, so how will react when the lake will reveal a mystery unsolvable without…belief? First chapter of the Summer Twins trilogy.
1. Frozen Mystery

FROZEN SUMMER

**Zach and Ivy love to solve mysteries. That's why when they hear about a lake in Burgess, Pennsylvania, that's always been frozen since 1712, they cannot be uninterested. They believe in science and reason, so how will react when the lake will reveal a mystery unsolvable without…belief?  
First chapter of the Summer Twins trilogy.**

_Chapter 1 – Frozen Mystery_

Tick Tock.  
The room was so silent even the little alarm clock's ticking seemed noisy; the only other sound that could be heard was the rustling one of a pen writing on paper. In a corner of the room, a small lamp lightened a desk where a girl, not older than 25, was working on some complicated math problem.

The girl had short, wavy, black hair, kept away from her face by a headband; thick squared glasses covered her greyish eyes. She was listening to music through two small earphones, but she seemed to be fully focused on her work.

Suddenly, the phone in her pocket started to ring: a plain, noisy Nokia Tune filled the room; the girl sighed when she recognized her brother's name appearing on the screen.

"What is it, Zach?" she asked once she pressed the green answering button, "You know I'm busy" she added.

A boy's distorted voice came from the phone: "Found something" he simply stated with a hint of excitement.

"Do tell" she said, starting to get interested.

"Come up here, you've got to see this, Ivy! It's a tricky one: you're going to like it!" he replied.

The girl looked at the ceiling, and after a moment asked: "Are you calling me on the phone _from upstairs_?"

"Hurry up!" he insisted, then hung up. Ivy rolled her eyes, then got up, climbing the stairs until she reached her brother's room. The door was open, a boy more or less her age was working in front of a computer screen while an old printer spat out some papers on his left. The room's walls were covered in several newspaper clippings and photographs of the two of them: brother and sister shared the same height and age and they both had grey eyes and black hair. They were twins: practically identical except that Zach had much more short hair and wore no glasses.

"You called?" she asked sarcastically, opening her arms. The boy didn't even move at first, but muttered something about the printer. The girl couldn't believe how lazy he was sometimes, acting if and only if something really interested him.

She grabbed the papers and quickly scrolled them; after a bunch of seconds she spoke again: "Where hell is Burgess?"

Finally, Zach turned back to face her: "Here in Pennysilvania, less than an hour by car from here"

"And what's so interesting about this town?" Ivy couldn't help but smile: her brother was thrilled, meaning this one was really interesting.

"A mile out of town there is a lake in the woods that, according to the records, never unfroze, even in the summer, since early XVIII century" he explained, grinning.

Ivy smiled as well: "Tell me more".

**Hello, everyone. This is my first attempt at writing a fanfiction in English. I'm not English-speaking, so you understand it is a bit of a challenge for me. Also, this is my first RotG story as well, it will be composed of three stories, of six chapters each: Frozen Summer, Child At Heart and Goodnight Tale.**

**I made my OCs through a test, in order to make them less Mary Sue-y/Gary Stu-ey as possible, since I have a bat habit of making up Mary Sues lately. **

**There will be NO ROMANCE in this story, not at all! You can obviously ship someone and feel free to tell me if you do, but don't expect to read about a love story.**

**This story (especially the last part) is still under construction, so I'll consider any request and/or suggestion.**

**Jack and Jamie are listed in the characters, but they make very little appearances in this first story, which is more focused on the twins. Even in the later stories, they're NOT the main characters.**

**Coming next: Frozen Lake, in which the Summer Twins start investigating.**

**I think that's all I've got to say for now. Please review.**


	2. Frozen Lake

Chapter 2 – Frozen Lake

"Last time we dealt with a lake we exposed a massive environmental pollution deal, do you remember?" Ivy said while Zach drove the car towards the town of Burgess.

"The cursed bells one, wasn't it? That guy really had fun discharging polluted waters in the lake. Everyone thought it was magic because every day at midnight a bells sound come from the lake" he recalled, with a smile "But that was boring, we discovered at the first immersion that an old submerged bell tower was hit by the stream of water. I hope this one is more interesting" he wished.

Ivy smirked: "Me too. Are we here already?" she asked, surprised as they passed over a sign with the name 'Burgess' on.

"Told you: not far. I asked dad to phone the mayor: we need his permission to start working"

"Seems legit" Ivy looked out the car window. Burgess was born as a Colonial town in the late XVI century, and it didn't expand much since then: it was still a small town with one church, one school and many old buildings along the newest ones.

It was a bright day of mid-August and they spotted a bunch of kids playing with water pistols and water bombs, since school hadn't start yet.

Finally, they reached the mayor's house, one of the more modern ones; as they parked the car a tall man with a moustache approached and shook Zach's hand as soon as he stepped out of the vehicle: "Zachariah Summer, I presume" he greeted him "and Yvonne…"

"Ivy" she corrected him.

"Of course" he didn't seem to be bothered "Please, come inside so we can talk".

The twins walked inside the house. "Make yourself at home" the man said, encouraging them to sit down on a large comfy sofa.

"So" Zach started once they settled down "our father should have called, did he explain the…situation to you?"

The mayor cleared his throat before speaking: "Yes, yes, he did…to be honest I didn't know about the place myself until few hours ago. I decided to check myself and…well, it was exactly as he described it" he told them, Ivy and Zach exchanged an excited look.

"How long have you been mayor of Burgess, Mr. Nolan?" Ivy asked, politely.

"Since this summer" he answered, with a puzzled look. "If I knew about it earlier, I would have exploited for tourism…" he sighed.

"Not until we finish our investigation" Zach interrupted him "So, the lake isn't private property, then?"

"It isn't" he confirmed. The twins then stood up simultaneously: "That's all we needed to know" Ivy said with a smile.

The man looked like he was a bit worried, nonetheless he handled them a map of the woods with an X marking the lake.

"Thank you very much" the girl said again when Mr. Nolan accompanied them outside, before hopping into the car.

"You know? You sound like somebody else when you're so polite" the boy told his sister when they both closed the car's doors. Ivy didn't even look at him: "Shut up and drive" she ordered: "Can we reach the place by car?"

"Don't think so" he replied "We'll approach the woods, then walk 'til the place. By the way, what do we have?"

"A depth gauge, some tubes for samples, a thermic swimsuit with oxygen tanks and an ice-melter" she listed "Since we're not far from home, I left most of the stuff at the lab"

"I agree with you…but a swimsuit? It shouldn't be bigger than a pond!"

"We don't know how deep it is…"

Zach didn't let her finish: "And what the hell is an ice-melter?!"

Ivy sighed: "I suppose we're going to find out" she said.

Zach drove the car until an empty parking on the edge of the woods, the air was nicely warm and not far away from them a family with two children was having a picnic.

The two of them started packing their instruments in two backpacks, then locked the car and headed towards the place indicated by the map. They walked for five minutes in complete silence, then Ivy finally spoke: "Can you remember the last time we had a picnic like that?" she wondered.

"Probably when mom was still alive" Zach stated, simply, without any emotion in his voice. Ivy was about to reply when a gust of cold air surprised her: they were both wearing light clothes and the sudden cold made them shiver.

"There it is…" Zach said. In front of them opened a small clearing, surrounded by rocks; they stared in awe at the sight of a beautiful frozen little lake. Sunshine shone and glittered on the icy surface, wrapping the place into a magical feeling. And yet, Ivy couldn't help but feel uneasy: the cold and the total absence of grass or animals gave her a feeling of death. Slowly she left her backpack on the lakeside and walked on the ice.

"Ivy, what are you doing?! It's dangerous!" Zach called her.

"It's not" she replied, surprised herself: "It's surprisingly thick, not even a crack!" kneeling, Ivy wiped away the snow, trying to see below the surface but the ice was dull.

"Ok, time to start!" she exclaimed rising up and rubbing her hands to warm them; she went back to her backpack and pulled out a box containing a long, needle-like object, with a cloth handle and a wire linking it to a battery. Then she grabbed a long wire with a weight and a meter; Zach looked at her curiously.

Ivy walked to what approximately was the center of the lake and pressed the long object's switch, careful to not touch it but from the handle: as a matter of fact, the metal became soon white hot, the girl put the object in the ice, and cut a deep circle in the ice, like a knife in a pat.

"Ok, Ice-melter" Zach stated "Does exactly what it says"

It took a while to reach the water underneath, since the ice was thicker than they thought, but finally ice cold water came out: "There's a three-feet layer of ice!" Ivy exclaimed.

"You're kidding me!" Zach joined her and whistled as he looked down: "How deep do you think it is?"

The girl threw the weight in the water, holding the wire: "We're about to find out" she murmured as she slowly let the weight sink deeper and deeper.

"3 feet, 4, 6…it's pretty deep too…" she observed, the rope still didn't stop "15, 16…" the weight finally stopped: "between 19 and 20 feet, including the ice" she stated as she started to recover the depth gauge.

"Cool" Zach commented, after a moment "Like, cool, cold! Did you get it?"

Ivy looked at him like she just wanted to facepalm, then went back to the lakeside and tossed him a pencil and a block-notes: "Stop blabbering and start working" she scolded him, then proceeded to unpack the swimsuit and the oxygen tanks.

"Am I going down?" Zach asked, hopeful, as he scribbled down the data they collected.

"Nope. I am" she retorted.

"Eh? What? That's not fair!" he pouted

"I'm your older sister: I decide" she stated

"You're two minutes older than me!" he cried "Don't be such an ass, Ivy!"

The girl laughed: "Just kidding" she gripped his shoulder tight, "Listen, once we're back, I'll let you deal with the lab analysis, all right?"

Zach smiled like a child who just received a new toy: "Deal!"

Ivy smiled too: Zach was such a baby sometimes, but he had always been there for her in the most difficult moment, he always knew what to say and what to do to make her feel better. That's why she loved him so much, more than how much she actually loved their father, who wasn't home most of the time. Since their mother died when the twins were 12, they grew up with carers and babysitters and Ivy had to grow up faster since she felt like she had to take care of her brother.

They both started to get interested in physics and science since their father was a researcher, and their grew interested in how any mystery could be in fact revealed as a scientific phenomenon: they started to solve mysteries at 19 and they became pretty known in the country, since Zach decided to keep a blog about it.

They were twins and they had many things in common, nonetheless they were pretty different in many others: Ivy loved staying indoors, chatting at the telephone and reading a book flipping slowly through the pages, maybe listening to good music such as melodical, classical or slow music. Zach on the contrary loved to go out with friends, drink a good beer and he often enjoyed a movie or a TV show in front of his computer.

Ivy quickly wore the suit and activated it: suddenly her skin warmed up. She grabbed a torch while Zach helped her putting the oxygen tanks on her back, then, together, they walked until the hole they created earlier.

"Remember, search for any exchange of water, there could be even a glacier, for what we know" Zach told her "And if you start to feel cold don't be stubborn and come out as fast as you can"

Ivy nodded, unable to speak because of the snorkel, then saluted Zach in a military way, turned on the torch and jumped down, letting the darkness swallow her.

**I don't have the slightest idea if an ice-melter or a warming swimsuit really do exist, but after all, what the hell! It's a fan fiction! This is an average-long chapter, there will be shorter and longer, but all around this length.**

**I hope this chapter wasn't boring. Coming next: Frozen Window, in which Ivy's going to find something on the bottom of the lake.**


	3. Frozen Window

Chapter 3 – Frozen Window

Darkness.

Around Ivy the world had turned completely dark, and cold. Though her skin was warmed up by the suit's heating system, she felt distinctly the abrupt change of temperature.

The girl turned on her flashlight and, to her astonishment, the light shone all around her: the water was surprisingly clear to be backwater. After few seconds she realized why: there were no fishes, no algae, no life at all. Ivy shivered: the water was devoid of oxygen because of the thick ice, and God knew for how long it had been like that.

Slowly, she went down, until her feet sank into what looked like a black disgusting mud, Ivy pointed the light at it shuffling it with a foot and some fish bones showed. Whatever froze permanently the lake did it for at least a century to kill every single life form.

Ivy walked throughout the backdrop, searching for any fount of spring, but the water was only surrounded by rocks and waterproof soil.

She was about to give up when, returning to the center of the lake she noticed a glitter in the mud: curious she rustled until she found the source of the glittering: it looked like an old rusty knife, but the blade had no handle but some pieces of leather sewn to one side. Ivy opened her eyes wide when she realized what she was holding. Quickly she rummaged the mud once more, until she found another blade; this one was preserved better and the leather still had its previous form.

Ivy swam to the surface and emerged from the same hole she dived into; Zach helped her to climb up: "So?"

Ivy took off the snorkel and mask and looked at her brother with shocked eyes: she didn't say anything, just showed him what she found.

"No way…" Zach said, "Are these…?"

Ivy nodded, holding the worn, old ice-skates.

On the road back home they didn't speak much: in addition to the skates, they also took with them samples of the water and the mud. Though the finding was a pretty intriguing mystery, it was sad to thing the skates were there probably because their owner fell into the lake while ice-skating.

"I'm going to dad's to study the samples" Zach started after a while "Do you want to come?"

After few seconds Ivy murmured: "No, drop me home. I need to rest"

Zach nodded, sharing his twin's mood.

_Ivy was back into the dark lake, she was floating underwater._

_She was cold since she didn't have the suit on._

_She was going to freeze._

_Ivy tried to swim, to reach the surface, but her body felt stiff._

_And so cold._

_The girl panicked, while her lungs burned for the lack of air; she thought of her brother, called his name as more air escaped from her mouth._

_No one came, just the dim light of the mocking full moon._

_She was so cold._

Ivy woke up with a start, covered in cold sweat, the sheets crumpled at the bed bottom; she was breathing heavily, greedily, as she looked around.

She was at home, in her room, in her bed. Everything was back to normal: no water, no ice, no freezing coldness. The window was open and the curtains swayed at a warm breeze. Still, she felt a shiver, because _there was something absolutely wrong_, even though she wasn't able to tell exactly what_._

The girl got out of bed and headed to Zach's room: his bed was tidy and untouched. She felt a lump in her throat as she reached her phone to call him, even if it was very common for him to come home late.

Ivy sighed with relief when he answered straightaway: "Something's wrong?" he asked with concern "It's not yourself to be awake in the middle of the night"

She did her best to sound calm: "It's three o'clock, when did you think to come back?"

"I'm staying here for the night" he replied "You won't believe what we found…"

"Not now" she stopped him "I'm too sleepy to even think properly"

"Had a nightmare?" he guessed

"No" she lied.

"Well, then I'll be there tomorrow around eight o'clock, 'kay?"

"Say hello to dad" she finished the conversation, before hanging up.

Ivy sat still on Zach's bed for a while, but her faint smile lasted little since abrupt realization hit her like a rock. She suddenly realized what bothered her when she awoke: she let the phone fall on the ground as she ran back to her room.

It was the middle of August.

And she woke up with frost on her window.

Ivy approached the window slowly, the ice had almost completely melt because of the heat, but few flower-like crystals remained.

The girl shivered and slowly sat back on her bed, staring at the ice in shock.

What the hell was going on?

**At here we go, third chapter. Thanks to Anonymous Heavy On The Anon and wenyigo for at least following my story. I really hope to receive at least a review this time.**

**Also, thanks to Haila for her scientific suggestions and to Laxy for being my first reader.**

**Coming Next: Frozen Boy, in which Ivy and Zach search for the skates owner in Burgess' archive.**


	4. Frozen Boy

_Chapter 4 – Frozen Boy_

"Did you even sleep?!" Zach exclaimed when Ivy entered the car showing bags under her eyes.

"Did you?" she replied, crabbed.

"Couple of hours, at dad's" he answered; unlike his sister, Zach was used to little sleep therefore looked rested and relaxed

"So? What did you find that was so exciting?" Ivy changed topic abruptly

Zach started the car: "You'll love this" he started "Remember the skates? The style is early XVII century: we tested them with C-14 to date them…"

"…and?"

"Not older than a month" he said with a smile

Ivy looked aghast: "What the hell?!"

"Exactly! Remember Dr. Joyce theories about time itself freezing at absolute zero? It must be something similar…" Zach sounded excited

The girl shook her head: "What else?"

"We searched the web for further information: it looks like they first noticed the lake was still frozen in mid-summer in 1713"

Realization hit Ivy: "The same time the skates may date back?"

"Yup!" the boy looked completely ecstatic "With high probability, whatever happened to that boy, or girl, made the lake frost. Or vice-versa, whatever froze the water made him drown."

Made him drown. Ivy shook her head, trying to avoid these thoughts. "What about the body?" she asked instead.

"There were traces of an human body in the mud and near the leather: hair, cloth, but no bones. It was probably retrieved shortly after and buried" he dismissed it.

Ivy shrugged: "What an horrible death…the cold, the darkness…and even if you manage to swim on the surface, the ice blocks your way" she whispered.

Zach looked at her: "A nightmare? Again?!" he realized immediately.

Ivy sighed, on the phone was easy, but face to face not: "Yeah" she admitted "I was drowning and no one was coming except the moon…"

"I knew there was something wrong!" he exclaimed with concern "I felt uneasy and I was about to drop the research and come home when you called…I should have come, shouldn't I?" he said sheepishly.

Ivy smiled: "It wasn't such a big deal" she replied

"Sure?"

"Yeah…"

"Then what about some music!" his smile returned as bright as ever as he turned on the radio, and some pop music started playing.

Ivy couldn't help but smile: this was one of the precious, tiny, moments, when Zach knew exactly what to do to make her feel better. In the past they used to have nightmares in the same moment, so they would cuddle together and comfort each other. Even if they weren't children anymore, they still shared a peculiar empathy.

After a few minutes and a couple of songs, Ivy asked: "Where are we going next?"

"Back to Burgess, to the parish archive" Zach explained "We have a period of years, between 1689 and 1713, an age between 15 and 20, judging by the shoe size, and a cause of death" he glanced at her "It's going to take a while but we're going to find our frozen kid between Burgess' death certificates"

"Is this going to help the investigation?" Ivy asked, doubtful

"Once we have a name, we have a family" he replied "Said family may have something to do with the phenomenon. Otherwise, it's our only clue."

Another moment of silence, then Ivy said: "I wonder why the skates were still on the bottom of the lake, if the body was retrieved"

"Ah! That's a good one! Dad guessed it first: that's because he…I'll stuck with he, ok? He was clever: as soon as he noticed the ice was cracking, he took of the skates to avoid slipping and be able to run away" the boy told her "Unfortunately, it didn't help…"

Ivy stayed silent.

At Burgess' parish, the priest looked a bit hesitant at showing some strangers the old archive, but the archivist was benevolent and he persuaded the churchman to show the twins the old ashy books.

Without discouragement, the two of them split the work, starting to read each death certificate since Burgess' foundation.

The list narrowed slowly, since most of the deceased were children under the age of 16. They started at 10 in the morning and it was almost 5 PM when Zach suddenly stopped and stared at one name.

"Oh…" was the only sound that came out of his mouth.

Ivy raised her head from the papers: "What did you find?"

Zach cleared his throat twice before speaking: "18 years old, died drowning in a frozen pond in February 1712"

"Looks like him!" the girl exclaimed with a smile, that broke soon when she noticed her brother turned pale "What's wrong…?"

"His name…" he whispered "This must be some sort of bad joke"

Ivy stood up and joined him, searching the piece of paper he was holding.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me" she murmured, Zach looked at her with a shocked smile.

In his hand there was the death certificate of a boy called Jack.

Jackson Overland Frost.

Jack Frost.

**You all have**_** no idea **_**how happy I was today reading your reviews! You really made my day! Each one of you! I wasn't expecting such a great response!  
More than that: 5 favs and 15, FIFTEEN followers, I really thank you all, I love you!  
Now, time to calm down and answer your questions:**

**QueenPersephoneofHades: To be accurate, both Ivy and Zachariah are 22 years old, so, yeah! They are far too old to believe in legends, but that's exactly what this story is about! Just be patient and read on! ;)**

**Anonymous Heavy on the Anon: Ivy and Zach are my original characters, although I have to thank the author **_**tigeranddash**_** to give me the inspiration to write this "gem".**

**I also want to thank blackkyu, Venetia5, Az The Dragon, victiniphantom and Winter's Soul because my soul felt warmer each word I read from you.**

**Secondly, there are some specifications I want to give you!**

**The archive scene was meant to be longer, but I had to cut it off because it was simply boring and unnecessary. I know quite a lot about archive research, since my father's hobby is to build the family tree. But as I said, I live in Italy, I have no idea how things work in America. Here, in small towns (such as Burgess), the town priest made every year a census called "Stato Delle Anime" (literally: Souls Status), writing down every family names, ages and relationships. Also, he wrote down the list of the newborns and deceased, with age, name and sometimes cause of death.  
Note: the books are "ashy" because in the past there were no such thing as absorbent paper, the priest used ashes to dry the ink.**

**Another thing: in my headcanon, Jack wasn't called "Frost" before his death, but this was a necessary thing for the plot, so forgive my poetic license.**

**Coming next: Frozen Heritage, in which Ivy and Zach search for the members of the Overland family (hint: Jamie appears, "Yaaay?")**


	5. Frozen Heritage

_Chapter 5 – Frozen Heritage_

The twins stared at the death certificate for a while before Zach let out a deep sigh: "Well, I suppose this is a creepy coincidence"

"Yeah" Ivy nodded "Now, we search for his family, right? Overland…" she looked thoughtful "If I recall, I've read this name often…it's weird to have two surnames so it must be something else"

"Yeah, even because…read here: son of Thomas Frost and Olivia Overland Finnick" Zach read out loud.

"His _mother_'s second surname?"

"Weird, uh? We'd better ask the archivist…" the boy suggested.

Ivy nodded and the two of them walked towards the old man's office, the archivist smiled when they asked him about the name 'Overland'.

"You research here, you inevitably come across the Overlands…" he chortled "You see, Burgess was found in mid-seventeenth century by a British man called John Overland, and his fellow countrymen held him in very high esteem. He had five daughters and no son; the eldest daughter married Thaddeus Burgess, to whom we owe the town's name. Thaddeus agreed to pass the wife's name onto his offspring, and it became a tradition, a little tradition that lasted long…"

"Are there still people with the name Overland, alive?" Zach asked, interested "Maybe someone can spare us from reconstructing three hundred years of history"

"Oh, sure…four or five branches remains: one still lives here in Burgess…"

Zach and Ivy stared at the man, waiting for a name, who arrived soon: "You'll find them under the name 'Bennett'!" the archivist exclaimed. The twins couldn't wait more: they literally jumped out of their seats heading towards their car.

Few minutes later they parked right outside the Bennett's house, which appeared to be an old restored barn, and rang the doorbell. A young woman with brown hair and hazel eyes opened gingerly the door.

"Hi!" the twins said in chorus. Then Ivy introduced them: "My name is Ivy Summer, and this is my brother Zach; we are researching about the Overland family, the archivist said you could help" she said in one breath.

Mrs. Bennett smiled and sighed with relief: "I thought you were door-to-door salesmen…please, come inside" she invited them.

A man with dirty-blond hair was reading a newspaper on the sofa: "Good Evening" he greeted the two.

"Dear" the woman started "Where did you put Dad's family tree?"

The man rose on his feet: "I'm getting it" he said, disappearing behind a door.

"Please, sit down" the woman told the twins "Would you like a cup of coffee?" she asked, both of them accepted.

"My father loved keeping track of the family's heritage" she told them while making coffee "It was him who made the family tree exposed at the town hall"

"If we had known it, we wouldn't come to bother you" Ivy apologized

"Oh, I don't mind" the woman smiled, handing them two cups of coffee "So, why are you researching for?"

They exchanged a glance before Zach spoke: "We have reasons to think your family has something to do with the Frozen Lake a mile from here"

"Oh, _that_ lake" the woman realized "My son calls it Jack's lake. He goes there often"

Zach did his best not to look too excited: it was the right track! Ivy instead, was mainly confused: Jack's lake? How could the drowned boy be so well-known?

Their thoughts were broken by the sound of the front door slamming, as a young boy came in running: "Mum!" he called "Sophie got soaked in the water balloon fight!"

Right outside the door, stood a girl not older than seven, with blonde hair, drenched to the skin and with a big grin on her face.

"Sophie!" Mrs. Bennett exclaimed with worry, but the girl didn't look hurt, just soaked. "Jamie" she instructed her son "Go get some towels"

The boy ran to the bathroom coming back with a pile of towels; while his mother was busy wiping the little girl he looked at the twins: "Who are you?"

Zach smiled and, leaning towards him, whispered in a conspiratorial tone: "We are detectives of supernatural…" Ivy rolled her eyes but smiled.

Jamie grinned as his eyes lightened: "Like the Scooby Doo lot?"

Ivy burst out laughing: "Yeah, pretty much like that in fact! I'm the clever one" she added adjusting her glasses.

"Hey!" Zach shouted.

"What are you investigating about?" Jamie asked, entertained.

"The lake that never thaw…" Ivy said

"Jack's lake?" he asked.

"Yeah, your mom said you call it like that. Why if I can ask?" Ivy wondered.

All of a sudden, Jamie looked doubtful and shy, like he was hiding something: "Well…because…we have a friend who goes there often….called Jack" he said, vaguely.

Ivy was about to ask him to clarify, but Mrs. Bennett came back, holding Sophie, wrapped in towels, in her arms. Simultaneously, her husband came back too, holding a big framed picture.

"What happened?" he asked as soon as he saw Sophie. His wife handed him the kid and grabbed the family tree: "Harry, can you change Sophie?" she asked him.

As soon as the man disappeared upstairs with the child, Mrs. Bennett readdressed the twins: "I'm so sorry" she apologized to them, putting the picture on the table in front of them: it was a very detailed, brached family tree, each name handwritten with an amazing care.

"It's beautiful" Ivy couldn't help but say.

"What do you need exactly?" the woman asked.

Zach pulled out of his pocket a photocopy of the death certificate they found: "A member of your family died at that lake three hundred years ago" he explained, Jamie looked even more interested: "The next summer the lake didn't thaw, we supposed the two events were linked" he concluded handing the woman the piece of paper.

Mrs. Bennett looked at the paper, then at the twins, at her son and at Zach again. Then she sighed: "All right, did you three agree to make this joke?"

"I beg your pardon?" Ivy asked "It's not a joke, we were surprised too…"

Mrs. Bennett looked again at her son, who looked pretty confused himself: "You really don't…" she sighed again: "Jamie, why don't you go back playing with your friends?"

"But I want to listen!" he complained

"It's ok, we don't mind…" Zach started, since he suspected the boy knew something.

"See, they don't mind!" Jamie repeated.

Mrs. Bennet gave up: "All right, let's see…18 years old in the 1712 means 1694…here it is" he pointed her finger at a little name on the right corner of the picture. Ivy, Zach and Jamie bended on it to see. Jamie gaped when he saw it: "Jack Frost…" he murmured.

"Jackson Overland Frost" the woman corrected him "Never married, no children of his own. Had a younger sister and a younger brother born in 1705 and 1713 respectively" she read "Philippa Overland Frost had one children, who named after her older brother, while Henry Overland Frost died of plague at seven. This branch however ends in 1850, with Alexander Overland Williams, dead with no heirs"

What?

The twins looked at each other, puzzled: they were not expecting this.

Ivy studied Physics, Zach Biology. The girl was absolutely convinced that science held the power to explain the mechanics of the universe, the knowledge that could free humankind by chains of superstition.

Since she was little, she had been curious about almost anything: her mother used to explain the world to her and Zach through stories and songs (oh, she did sang so well…), but since she died of cancer when they were 10, no one told them stories.

Their dad was a university teacher and researcher and he taught them the only way he knew: the twins rediscovered wonder through science and experiments as they grew up.

When they started to unravel mysteries, though, Ivy discovered how uneasy she felt whenever some event seemed unexplainable: it was like someone was trying to demolish her convictions, at it just didn't feel right.

Zach, instead, had always dreamt of discovering something really unexplainable, but they just weren't able to.

That's why their reactions were extremely different.

"Are you all right?" Mrs. Bennett asked Ivy, who looked pale and shocked. The girl nodded: "I just need some air…" she whispered.

"I think we're done here" Zach said, quickly. The woman saw them out: "Listen, Jack Frost has been my son's obsession in the last four years" she explained while they were outside "It's some kind of game they play in the winter…I had no problem with that at the beginning, but he's growing up and he's too old to have imaginary friends…" the woman looked concerned.

"I understand you…" Ivy whispered, but Zach was still interested: "What exactly this imaginary friend do?"

The woman looked disturbed by the question: "Oh, well, make it snow, starts snowball fights, freezes window panels…he always blame him if he gets involved in something dangerous…"

Freezes window panels.

Ivy shivered: no way. No way on Earth this was even possible.

Jamie popped out from his mother's back: "If you want to meet him, come back in winter! He doesn't like it here when it's too hot!" he exclaimed.

"Jamie!" his mother exclaimed "What did I tell you? Go back inside?"

"I'm going to play with Cupcake and the others" he exclaimed, running out in the streets: "See you!" he waved off at the twins.

"We're dropping the investigation" Zach said all of a sudden when they drove off the town.

It took a while for Ivy to realize what he just said: "What?!" she exclaimed.

"We have no more clues" Zach sounded exasperated "The best chance is to come back in winter to check if Jamie Bennett's story holds a grain of thruth"

Ivy sighed: "For a moment I thought you believed him…" she smiled.

"What?" he laughed "Well, as much as I'd like to, I find really hard to believe in a blue guy with an unsightly hat, so: nope"

Ivy laughed too, but she started to feel sleepy due to the hard work and stress: "Zach?" she called.

"Uh?"

"Thank you for being always there for me…" she whispered.

Zach glanced at her, but the girl had already fallen asleep. So he smiled and started humming a tune.

**Hello everyone! This chapter is pretty longer than the previous ones, I hope it isn't boring!**

**Just for the record, in case it wasn't clear: Jamie ****isn't**** Pippa direct descendant, more like a distant relative! Yeah, ah ah, coincidences. I really hope he wasn't Out Of Character.  
Another thing, if it wasn't clear, this story takes place during the summer of 2016, four years later than the movie events…**

**Time to answer a few reviews, now:**

**Anonymous Heavy on the Anon: and I keep rereading every review while I write…**

**wenyigo: I'm happy you like the story. Now, to clarify, the twins' father doesn't know the mayor of Burgess, he simply called him on their behalf to inform him of their arrival. Secondly, as said in this chapter, he's a researcher, you can imagine he grants them access to the university where he works' laboratory.**

**Az The Dragon: Se sei italiano/italiana si può sapere perché recensisci in inglese? XD Comunque, spero che le note ti abbiano chiarito il tuo piccolo headcanon. Non pubblicherò questa storia in italiano perché non credo di essere in grado di rendere la maggior parte delle frasi nella nostra lingua. ****(If you're Italian, why do you review in english? XD However, I hope the notes clarified your little headcanon. I won't publish this story in Italian because I don't think I'd be able to say most of the things I thought in Italian.)**

**I want to thank also blackkyu, Grecia427, QueenPersephoneofHades, beautifulsoul9786 and The Queen Of Valencia Tongue for their reviews and everyone else for their support.**

**Coming Next: Frozen Summer. Four months later. A fateful meeting. (This first part's last chapter. Yup, Jack appears)**


	6. Frozen Summer

_Chapter 6 – Frozen Summer_

The 5th of January of that same year, James Overland Bennett woke up discovering that, during the night, a thick layer of snow covered Burgess.

A huge grin appeared on his face as he ran to his sister Sophie's bedroom: that much snow in one night could only mean two things.

No school.

"Sophie! Sophie!" he called "Snow day!"

And a chance to meet an old friend.

The little seven years old blonde girl started jumping on her bed, hearing these words.

"Quick! Dress up!" the boy threw her some warm clothes "Let's go searching for Jack!" he exclaimed.

Few minutes later the two of them grabbed some biscuits from the kitchen and ran outside.

"No school today" their mother said, uselessly, since they already had gone away. Her husband laughed: "I think they have a sixth sense for these kind of things…" he commented.

Meanwhile, the two of them managed to gather their usual group of friends. Jamie and Sophie, along with Chilali (who went by Cupcake), Pippa, Monty and the black twins Claude and Caleb, were a very peculiar bunch of kids: four years before they helped saving the world's children from the Boogeyman, Pitch Black, along with the Guardians: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Sandman and Jack Frost.

Few actually believed them, even among the other kids, but everyone in town knew about the 'Guardians of Belief' as they addressed themselves.

As the reached the woods, Jamie threw the first snowball at Claude, shouting "Everyman for himself!" as chaos started, even Sophie, despite being the younger one, was involved.

Then, one snowball, flying past his target, hit someone passing by: Zach Summer lost his balance and fell with his face in the snow. Ivy, who was walking beside him, burst out laughing.

"It's the Scooby Doo guys!" Jamie exclaimed, recognizing them.

"All right, who threw that?" he asked while raising on his feet. Every kid pointed at each other.

"Oh, really?" Zach started making a snowball "My vengeance shall be cruel!" he shouted before throwing him. Ivy laughed again, and here he was, playing with kids ten or more years younger than him; the girl wished she was so good with children too.

"I'm going first, ok?" she called him, he showed a thumb as in saying: "Ok" and the girl entered the woods.

Four months passed since they came to the frozen lake for the first time: the woods looked really different now that the leaves fell from their branches and the ground was covered in snow and ice.

She arrived soon at the pond: it was exactly as they left it, except that, strangely enough, the hole they made in the ice was nowhere to be seen. Nothing changed, the sight, though, looked much more natural now that the surroundings matched his shape.

Ivy sat on a fallen tree, waiting for Zach, and thinking about the events that led them there.

In the past months, Zach showed less and less interest in the lake mystery, until, one day, he told her it was for the best that some mysteries remained unsolved. The girl didn't agree at first but now that she were there she understood: the view in front of her was magic.

If they solved the mystery, this magic would disappear.

She knew his brother, deep inside, loved the idea that some kind of spirit kept the lake frozen to avoid kids from falling into the icy waters that killed him.

"_There was a boy…"_

Ivy remembered a song that their mother used to sang to them every year when the first snow fell; she started to sing it as well.

"_A very strange, enchanted boy…"_

Zach probably forgot about the lake already, busy playing with the kids.

"_They say he wandered very far…"_

Ivy stood up, cleaning her trousers from the snow: maybe it was really for the best that the lake remained a mystery.

"_Very far…"_

She turned around, glancing at the lake one last time: maybe Jack Frost really existed and loved that place, she smiled.

"_Over land…and sea…"_

Ivy froze on the spot, all of a sudden: "Over land…" she repeated on a whisper.

But it wasn't the song's lyrics coincidence to stop her: she just saw something in the corner of her eye.

Something in the middle of the lake.

Ivy slowly turned around. Defying every physics law, there was a wooden staff, standing tall exactly at the centre of the lake: it resembled a shepherd's crook, but it was covered in frosty patterns. And on its top, perched on its top, stood a boy.

_There was a boy…_ the words echoed in her mind.

The boy looked like a teenager, but he was as pale as death, with ice-blue eyes and hair as white as snow.

_A very strange, enchanted boy…_

He was barefoot. _He was clever…_ Zach's words when he told her why the skates were on the bottom of the lake. Despite the cold, he only wore worn brown trousers and a blue hoodie, which shoulders and sleeves were covered in ice patterns.

_They say he wandered very far…_

The boy was looking at her, with a smile and a curious expression.

_Very far…_

When the two of them made eye contact, though, his expression changed to a shocked one.

_Overland…_

"Can you see me?" he asked.

…_and see…_

Ivy screamed.

**Aaand…this is the end.**

**Yup, you read it: this is the last chapter of Frozen Summer. The story will continue on 5****th**** January with _Child at Heart_.**

**I'm afraid I'm running out of time: I'm about to go on holiday, and I won't have internet connection for two weeks from now.**

**I'm sorry I can't answer all of your reviews, I will in the first chapter of Child at Heart.**

**In the meanwhile, I want to thank you all for your AMAZING support. Feel free to fanart, it's always a pleasure to see your characters' interpretations.**

**Please, don't post this fanfiction on other sites, though a link to this page is always welcomed.**

**The song recommended for the last part of this chapter is Nature Boy by Kerli.**

**Merry Christmas, Happy Easter and don't forget to floss.**

**Bye! **


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